Congress will have a record-setting number of Black members in its ranks next year

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November 25, 2024

Curtis Bunn, NBC News

Rep. Gregory Meeks, with Reps. Joyce Beatty, Troy Carter and James Clyburn, at a news briefing in Philadelphia in 2022.Alex Wong / Getty Images file

The Congressional Black Caucus will boast a record 62 members for the next session of Congress, contributing toward the highest number of Black federal lawmakers in history, according to a post-election report by the organization shared with NBC News. In all, 67 Black people will serve in Congress. Five Republican members are not listed as members of the CBC. While the caucus’s members had planned to uphold a policy agenda for Black and marginalized people under a Kamala Harris administration, instead Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., said the CBC’s role will be to hold President-elect Donald Trump and his congressional supporters accountable.

“We’ve always been the conscience of the Congress, and that’s no matter who’s in charge,” Meeks, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told NBC News. “We always try to work with folks where we can. But we call them out also. And now we have more of these leaders to call truth to power, to make sure that the voices of the voiceless are heard.”

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Black leaders first gained power during a short period known as reconstruction.

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